In recent years there has been a recognized and, therefore, growing need to accommodate the needs of those in wheelchairs on public transportation. To this end, there has a been a large number of devices proposed to provide wheelchair lifts in transit buses--those intended for use on city and suburban streets. Such buses have two features that have shaped the design and location of such lifts on the bus. One is that they are typically not far off the ground or pavement and the other is that they usually have more than one door. Therefore, it has been possible to design wheelchair lifts to be mounted inside one of the doors leaving at least one other door unencumbered. Likewise, because the distances between pavement or curb level and the bus floor level are not excessive, the actuating or raising and lowering means can be mounted adjacent a doorway stairwell and still leave room for the steps and floor space in the vicinity of the steps.
Tour or intercity buses, however, have totally different problems. They are, first of all, much taller than transit buses. In a typical bus, the floor of the bus may be 54 inches above the pavement while the underside of the bus may be 13 inches above the pavement. Similarly, the floor of a railway car may oftentimes be many feet above the floor of an adjacent platform. These distances require a lifting mechanism that cannot easily be contained within the spaces available around the stairwell of such a bus or railway car.